A Review of Solution Chemistry Studies: Insights into Students’ Conceptions

This study has reviewed the last two decades of student conception research in solution chemistry pertaining to aims, methods of exploring students conception, general knowledge claims, students conceptions and difficulties, and conceptual change studies. The aims of solution chemistry studies have been to assess students understanding level of solution chemistry and in some studies compare understanding based on age and year at school or college. The methods of exploring students conceptions consisted of interviews, paper and pencil surveys (open-ended questions and multiple-choice questions), free writing and drawings and the validity of these methods have been highlighted. The general knowledge claims synthesized in this study are students (a) attending to mechanical events, (b) preference for everyday language usage over chemical language, (c) confusing solution chemistry with non-related concepts, (d) lack of sub-microscopic explanation for macroscopic observation, (e) difficulty with visualizing and representing sub-microscopic ideas, (f) difficulty with symbolic representations, (g) inconsistent explanations, (h) development of student understanding with age, and (i) development of conservation reasoning with age. To incorporate students conceptions, conceptual change studies have used strategies such as worksheet, analogy, collaboratively working with a teacher, hypermedia, and group exploration. The results of conceptual change studies generally have had a positive impact enabling students to consider their ideas and develop plausible models of solution chemistry. For improvement of student learning in chemistry, this review of solution chemistry studies sheds light on teacher thinking and capacity building with respect to explicitly incorporating students conceptions into chemistry curriculum; practicing research-based strategies; forging links among types of chemical knowledge; collaborating for experimental teaching; and conducting further research.     

Students’ Emotive Reasoning Through Place-Based Environmental Socioscientific Issues

Research in Science Education - Engaging environmental socioscientific issues (SSI) requires navigating diverse positions regarding people and nature. This qualitative investigation determined how...     

Secondary School Students’ Reasoning About Science and Personhood

Science & Education - Scientific advances, particularly in evolutionary biology, genetics, neuroscience and artificial intelligence, present many challenges to religious and popular notions of...     

Historical Reasoning: Towards a Framework for Analyzing Students’ Reasoning about the Past

This article explores historical reasoning, an important activity in history learning. Based upon an extensive review of empirical literature on students’ thinking and reasoning about history, a theoretical framework of historical reasoning is proposed. The framework consists of six components: asking historical questions, using sources, contextualization, argumentation, using substantive concepts, and using meta-concepts. Each component is discussed and illustrated by examples from our own research. The article concludes with suggestions on how to use the framework both in future research and in educational practice.     

Examining Reasoning Practices and Epistemic Actions to Explore Students’ Understanding of Genetics and Evolution

Science & Education - This article focuses on students’ discursive moves and reasoning practices while engaged in a task that requires making explanatory links between sickle cell disease...     

Middle School Students’ Reasoning in Nonlinear Proportional Problems in Geometry

In this study, we investigate sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students’ achievement in nonlinear (quadratic or cubic) proportional problems regarding length, area, and volume of enlarged figures. In addition, we examine students’ solution strategies for the problems and obstacles that prevent students from answering the problems correctly by using a mixed method research design. A total of 935 middle school students were given a paper-pencil test and 12 of them were interviewed. Findings indicated that achievement of the participants were low and that students used a limited number of strategies for solving the problems. In addition, these strategies were found to have lacked the argument of the linear proportional and nonlinear proportional relationships among length, area, and volume concepts for most of the participants’ answers. Moreover, analysis revealed that the confusion of linear proportional and nonlinear proportional relationships and misinterpretation of additive and multiplicative relationships were serious obstacles while solving the nonlinear proportional problems related to the area and volume of enlarged figures.     

Secondary School Students’ Understanding of Science and Their Socioscientific Reasoning

Research in socioscientific issue (SSI)-based interventions is relatively new (Sadler in Journal of Research in Science Teaching 41:513–536, 2004; Zeidler et al. in Journal of Research in Science Teaching 46:74–101, 2009), and there is a need for understanding more about the effects of SSI-based learning environments (Sadler in Journal of Research in Science Teaching 41:513–536, 2004). Lee and Witz (International Journal of Science Education 31:931–960, 2009) highlighted the need for detailed case studies that would focus on how students respond to teachers’ practices of teaching SSI. This study presents case studies that investigated the development of secondary school students’ science understanding and their socioscientific reasoning within SSI-based learning environments. A multiple case study with embedded units of analysis was implemented for this research because of the contextual differences for each case. The findings of the study revealed that students’ understanding of science, including scientific method, social and cultural influences on science, and scientific bias, was strongly influenced by their experiences in SSI-based learning environments. Furthermore, multidimensional SSI-based science classes resulted in students having multiple reasoning modes, such as ethical and economic reasoning, compared to data-driven SSI-based science classes. In addition to portraying how participants presented complexity, perspectives, inquiry, and skepticism as aspects of socioscientific reasoning (Sadler et al. in Research in Science Education 37:371–391, 2007), this study proposes the inclusion of three additional aspects for the socioscientific reasoning theoretical construct: (1) identification of social domains affecting the SSI, (2) using cost and benefit analysis for evaluation of claims, and (3) understanding that SSIs and scientific studies around them are context-bound.     

Teachers’Challenges Relating to the Participation of Students with Visual Impairment in Inclusive Education in China

Inclusive education specialists in China hold that,inclusive education,generally speaking,is to break the fence of the traditionally segregated special education,to integrate students with disabilities in regular schools and to enable them study and live together with students without disabilities (Lei,2001).However,it is not always the case.Even if some students with disabili ties have entered regular schools,their genuine participation in education is less likely to be ensured.In some cases,schools place a high value on the quantity rather than quality of inclusive education.Though some students with disabilities attend class,they just sit alone during the whole class period without any participation in the classroom activities or interaction with other classmates.Unfortunately,others are just remained at home in spite of their names on the list.Tang (as cited in Pang & Richey,2006) stated that,"researchers have pointed out that without close,professional supervision,students with disabilities could easily be neglected in general classrooms" (p.85).As is readily seen,students with disabilities under such cir cumstance will not get any benefit from inclusion though its starting point is to provide equal opportunities for them to partici pate in education.When it comes to the students with visual impairments,regular schools fail to meet their special needs since there are not enough special educators and facilities available.So if those students with visual impairments enter such a regular school,they will not get much benefit from inclusion;instead,they will lose opportunities to take genuine participation in education.Therefore,teachers still encounter several challenges relating to students with visual impairments’genuine participation in inclusive educa tion.     

Physics Students’ Conceptual Understanding of Geometric Optics: Revisited Analysis

Journal of Science Education and Technology - In this study, we used a research tool for measuring students’ conceptual understanding in optics, the Geometrical Optics Conceptual...     

Relating Preschool Quality to Children’s Literacy Development

Preschool classrooms were investigated to determine the extent to which quality is related to children’s literacy development. The study included 24 classrooms of 428 prekindergarten children in a large, urban Midwestern school district. Results suggest that global classroom quality and literacy environment quality are strongly related. Literacy environment quality and children’s literacy abilities are also related. Differences in classroom quality were found to have an impact on children’s literacy scores—the higher the quality, the higher the scores. This article also describes lessons learned from the investigation and provides suggestions for teachers and administrators for improving quality to enhance literacy development.     

How to Develop the Students’ Motivation

Motivation is one of the most important factors access to success.There are three types of students’ motivation in English learning.In order to get good result in the process of teaching,teachers try their best to develop students’ motivation.They have tried many ways,such as enhancing students’ interesting through playing games,introduce the culture of English speaking countries.It’s meaningful that teachers develop several kinds of motivation at the same time.All these important methods can be used in actually teaching to get a better result.     

Preparing Teachers’ to Raise Students’ Mathematics Learning

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the ORIGO Stepping Stones program in a large suburban school district in the Midwestern U.S.. The sample included 11 elementary schools that implemented the program during the 2013–2016 school years. Findings are presented from teacher surveys, classroom observations, and analysis of standardized student mathematics achievement scores on the Northwest Evaluation Association Measurement of Academic Progress (NWEA MAP). Using multilevel models, the program did not demonstrate a detectably larger effect on mathematics achievement than the comparison. Classroom observations and views of teachers that support program implementation were explored. In terms of fidelity of implementation, findings suggested that the program was delivered differently from how it was intended. With respect to researchers and policymakers, the approach used to evaluating mathematics program effectiveness is informative and could be used as part of larger accountability systems.     

Ways to Arouse Students’ Extrinsic Motivation

Various studies have found that motivation has a close relationship with students’achievement.The relationship between motivation and learning is interactive,it is agreed that students who have strong motivation,and they are more likely to make more effort in learning than others.We can safely conclude that motivation is a necessary condition when learning a foreign language.A real learning     

Using Technology to Improve Students’ Literacy

Rapid evolution of communication technologies has changed language pedagogy and language use,and they enable new forms of discourse and new ways to create and participate in communities.Using the modern technology can reinforce and expand the ESL stu dents’ s language and literacy instruction.It mainly discusses the effects of television on literacy development,and using video to enhance reading outcomes.A great number of studies provide evidence that learners can develop their language and literacy skills from technology.     

Facilitating Students’ Conceptual Change and Scientific Reasoning Involving the Unit of Combustion

This article reports research from a 3 year digital learning project to unite conceptual change and scientific reasoning in the learning unit of combustion. One group of students had completed the course combining conceptual change and scientific reasoning. The other group of students received conventional instruction. In addition to the quantitative data, six students from each group were interviewed to evaluate their conceptual change, correct concepts and scientific reasoning. Results indicate that the experimental group’s students significantly outperformed the conventional group on the Combustion Achievement Test (CAT), Scientific Reasoning Test (SRT) and Combustion Dependent Reasoning Test (CDRT). Moreover, the experimental group’s students use higher levels of scientific reasoning more frequently and changed their alternative concepts more successfully than did the conventional group. Furthermore, once the experimental group’s students’ successfully changed their conceptions, their concepts tended to be more stable than the conventional group’s students, even after the 6th week of learning. These results demonstrate that combining conceptual change and scientific reasoning indeed improves students’ conceptual change and scientific reasoning ability more effectively than conventional instruction.     

Several CASE Lessons Can Improve Students’ Control of Variables Reasoning Scheme Ability

This study addressed one aspect of scientific reasoning, the control of variables reasoning scheme. We explored whether a short intervention aimed at accelerating this reasoning scheme by CASE lessons would improve students’ ability to apply this scheme in problems related to the biology curriculum. About 120 students from grade nine were assessed for their Piagetian cognitive level and were divided into two groups, control or intervention. A short intervention of three sessions took place in the intervention group only. Both groups were then instructed on the topic of enzymes according to the biology curriculum and undertook a final exam. The results showed that only 20% of the population acquired the Piagetian formal operations level, in line with previous findings. In addition, it was found that the short intervention had a significant effect on students’ ability to use the control of variables reasoning scheme.     

An Investigation into ELP Courses from Students’Perceived Needs

Although very vital world widely,ESP(English for special purpose) teaching in China is still in its infancy.Therefore,this research taking ELP(English for legal purpose) course as an example,tries to produce some valuable suggestions:ESP textbooks should focus on linguistic continuity;a team teaching model should be encouraged;researching into the Target Use Situation is needed.